Page 3 - MegaConf_Communicators

and ideals. This was an attack on the very identity, i.e., ‘swa’ of the nation. The most effective tool to achieve this ‘higher’goal,obviously,was ‘science’.
The foul play of colonisers
based on ‘science’ has been
exposed by renowned
scholar Ashish Nandy. He
writes, ‘The reader may
remember popular anecdotes about colonial adventurers, or scientifically-minded explorers who sometimes scared off or impressed the natives of Asia and Africa with new forms of black magic based on the discoveries of modern science. The civilizing mission of colonialism thrived on this folklore of encounter between western science and savage superstitions. But in each such instance, it was science that was put to the use of the colonial state; the state was not put to the use of science.’ It was a serious attempt of British rulers to conquer the ‘swa' of India by using ‘science’.
Challenging British Intellectual Hegemony
It was the domain of science from where the conch was blown to challenge the British intellectual hegemony. Dr Mahendralal Sircar, a successful medical practitioner and a science enthusiast with brilliant scholarship, having experienced the bitter hegemonic attitude of the adherents of western science, rose against the sheer injustice and pledged to establish a swadeshi scientific institution. With the help of munificent fellow Indians he established an Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) in 1876, which was ‘solely native and purely national’. It was a beginning of science movement with a swadeshi spirit that stirred up genius young minds. One brightest star among the patriotic scientists who sprang up from IACS was Dr
C V Raman, a first ‘non-white’ scientist who won a Nobel Prize in 1930.
Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose, well known as the first Indian scientist of the modern era, displayed amazing Indian intellectual capabilities to the world, especially to the West. As a patriot,
he did a first ‘satyagraha’ (सत्ाग्रह).
Upon his return to India from
England (1884), after completing
his studies in Physics with high
distinction, he was willing
to teach Physics. Here he
confronted injustice and
racial discrimination
inflicted by the British rule,
under which the Education
service was practically
segregated into two
distinct racial camps —
Imperial Service for the British and the Provincial Service for Indians, having the very same duties and responsibilities, but with
much lower pay. After entering on his duties, Bose found that this two- thirds pay was to be further reduced by one half, since his appointment was only officiating. In other words, he was to get one-third of the normal pay. Refusing to submit to this oppression, Bose initiated a struggle with protest, a satyagraha. His biographer Prof Patrick Geddes says: ‘From the first he was very clear as to his course — that of performing all that could be asked from him and more; but at the same time he resolved to do all in his power throughout his career towards raising the status of Indian professors. He decided on a new form of protest, and maintained it with unprecedented definiteness and pertinacity..., he resolved never to touch the cheque received by him monthly as his pay; and continued this for three years’. British authorities
yielded before this determined nonviolent resistance. In 1895, he made a groundbreaking discovery through which he pioneered wireless communication in the history of modern science. Bose, a first non-white scientist who created radiant imprints in the domain of
modern science, was driven with a nationalistic spirit. Another illustrious scientist, was Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray. To raise the diminishing spirit of Indians he wrote the book, History of Hindu Chemistry highlighting the remarkable development of chemistry in India from early times. In a similar vein, to cultivate self-confidence in the hearts of countrymen to achieve self- reliance, he successfully established a first science-based swadeshi industry, the Bengal Chemical and
Pharmaceutical Works, in 1901. Along with Dr Mahendralal Sircar, JC Bose and PC Ray, the galaxy of leading lights of Indian science initiated a vigorous and creative struggle in the domain of science to achieve
swatantrata.
Paying tributes to these
science warriors will be truly meaningful and fruitful if we couldimbibetheirspiritand understand their dream
about swatantra Bharat.
The author is the National Organising Secretary of Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA). Email: jayantss66@gmail.com
Bose Institute Kolkata
Jagadish Chandra Bose